What do you do when you have a highly engineered swing set? Get that swing out of the way and attach your suspension system! I love using the Jungle Gym for a number of reasons:

• Variability of movement: getting your muscles to work in a new way is important to avoid overtraining a specific muscle group (think ‘curls for girls’ type workouts). Plus the amount of muscle used to keep yourself balanced with suspension systems allows you to automatically incorporate a large group of muscles just by trying to stay in your position. Variation is also soooo good for prevention of osteoporosis (I’m talking to you, premenopausal ladies!). Challenging muscles in different ways places varied strain on bones, which helps them to build and maintain density! Bone density only improves in the areas bone is challenged, which is one reason osteoporosis is hard to manage-it is work to make sure you address the necessary areas!

• Muscle activation: As I mentioned above, it takes many muscle groups to keep your balance. Suspension systems allow for a huge group of muscle recruitment with fairly simple movements. Thus, you can gain endurance and strength is muscles you weren’t necessarily targeting. It’s an extra bang for your buck!

• Low impact: This is a great workout if your body needs more of a rest (though if you need an actual rest day, take one). There is no impact with any of these movements, so if you want some strengthening after plyometrics training, this is a good option for joint recovery while still challenging your system.

• Easy set up and take down: the TRX and Jungle Gym-type systems are designed for easy set up and take down, so they take up very little space if you don’t have a dedicated gym area at home but would like the option for this type of training. And if you’re swing set is up for the weight, you can bring the whole workout outside which is perfect for summer.

• The Jungle Gym is insanely cheaper than the TRX system, and I actually like the handles a lot better. I have experience using both systems, and it is much easier to get your feet into the Jungle gym because the design is specifically for that purpose. I have linked the system below in case you are interested (but I believe it is sold out due to the coronavirus pandemic and recent surge in home workouts).

Now scroll down if you want to get the sets/reps info, or keep reading to see how this all fits in with pelvic floor health!

How Does Prolapse Fit In?

Lately I’ve been on a kick creating higher level workouts that tend to be ok for women with prolapse-if they are already exercising at higher intensity. I think that exercising the core can be a little challenging because some women become symptomatic with repetitive crunches or the more intense styles of V ups/boat pose, hip-hinge exercises with trunk flexion, etc. This makes sense when we consider the level of pressure driving through the abdominal cavity during a crunch. Lifting your torso off of the ground using the counterweight of your lower body is challenging. And although this varies from person to person depending on weight distribution, most of us carry more weight in our trunks than our lower bodies.

The challenge of lifting our upper bodies, along with the curl up, creates a high moment of pressure in the abdominal cavity/core. If you add in breath holding (which automatically occurs when working around 80% of your 1 rep maximum-a determination of the intensity at which an individual is working, dependent on various factors that affect overall fitness), you create a significant amount of pressure that the pelvic floor must contain. Even with normalized breathing it can be difficult for a weaker or injured pelvic floor to control for that increase in pressure. And that’s where this suspension system workout kicks in. It allows for variability in training the core without the use of crunch-style exercises. Breath holding and form still must be accounted for, but there is less increase in intraabdominal pressure to manage because of the elimination of trunk flexion (rounding the spine).

Is this ok for diastasis?

Yes, if you are at a place where you have been able to control your intraabdominal pressure well with your physical therapist doing challenging core work. With prolapse it can be easier-though not immediate-to determine if you are able to tolerate an exercise or routine well because symptoms will likely appear if core pressure is not well managed. With diastasis, you may or may not have or have had symptoms, and have definitely been using visualization of the rectus gap to determine if your pressure management is good. If you have a mirror you can check while you do the exercises that would be my first recommendation. My 2nd suggestion is to try setting up your phone to watch your core for you, hit record and do the movements. Stop when you start to feel fatigued and check the video. Is your gap bulging? Is your low back dropping or arching during plank movements? If so, adjust the straps so that the intensity is less and try again. If you’re still having trouble, check with your PT (or a personal trainer experienced in diastasis) to troubleshoot.

The suspension System workout Movements (see video for more details)

1. Push Ups: the traditional movement made more challenging with instability of the hand holds. Remember to keep your trunk in a straight line with your head and toes, and raise the handles up if you are getting any strain on your low back. You can lower them back down as you get stronger.

2. Plank and Reach: start in a plank position that you can comfortably hold with hands in the straps. Keeping your trunk in line with your head, hips and legs, slowly reach forward until you feel reaching further will compromise your form. Return to hands under shoulders. The more upright you are, the easier this will be. You should not feel any strain to your low back, or you need to be more upright.

3. Pull Ups: grab the straps and slowly lower yourself down into an up facing plank. Pull your chest up to your hands while keeping your forearms close to your ribs.

4. Hip Thrusters: Start in the same position as the rows. Lower your hips down bending only at the waist, and drive the hips back up to starting position.

5. Half Pike: Place one foot in the straps, then lower yourself to your knees. Place the other foot in the strap and walk hands out to make a plank position. Bring the knees up toward the chest, then legs straighten back to start.

6. Full Pike: In same starting position as the half pike, drive your hips up to the sky using your core to do the motion. Lower to start without arching your back at the bottom (keep the body in a straight line from head to toes).

7. Knee Obliques: In a plank position (hands in the straps) bend one knee toward your chest keeping your body head to toe in a straight line. Bring the same knee back to start and then out to the side up to the shoulder. Switch legs.

The Workout

3 sets in order:

10 Push Ups

10 Plank and Reach

10 Pull Ups

10 Hip Thrusters

10 Half Pikes

10 Full Pikes

10 Knee Obliques (each side is one)

1 minute rest between each set.

Enjoy the sweat!

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PC for article tuumbnail: @matthewlejune